New Clause 4
4:00 pm
Responsibilities of police authorities
‘(1) Each police authority will have the ability to determine its own local precept agreement with the relevant local council or councils as appropriate to its individual requirements.
(2) Each police authority will have the ability to determine its own fiscal priorities in accordance with its individual requirements.
(3) The Secretary of State may not give unsolicited directions to police authorities on local precepts, minimum budgets or fiscal priorities.
(4) Each police authority has a duty to consult with the Secretary of State, and to take account of national policing authorities.
(5) The Police Act 1996 is amended as follows.
(6) In section 6(2) (general functions of police authorities), leave out paragraph (a).
(7) In section 6(2)(c) leave out “whether in compliance with a direction under section 38 or otherwise”.
(8) In section 6 subsection (3) is omitted.
(9) For section 37A (setting of strategic priorities for police authorities) substitute—
“Policing objectives
Each individual police authority must determine objectives for the policing of their own local area.”
(10) For section 38 (setting of performance targets) substitute—
“Where an objective has been determined under section 37, the relevant police authority shall establish levels of performance (performance targets to be aimed at in seeking to achieve the objective).”
(11) Section 39 (Codes of Practice) is repealed.
(12) Section 41 (Directions as to a minimum budget) is repealed.
(13) Section 44 (Reports from Chief constables) is repealed.
(14) The Local Government Act 1999 is amended as follows.
(15) In section 31(9) (major precepting authorities: further recognition), after “1992”, insert “, but excluding police authorities and the Metropolitan Police Authority”.’.
At the time we broke, we were in a middle of the debate, and Julie Kirkbride had the floor.
Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove) (Con) rose—